Blackout Friday – the energy strategy will cost PLN 400 billion

We have a draft energy strategy until 2040, which will be submitted to social consultations until January 15, 2019. This means that by the end of the year there will be no official Polish Energy Policy until 2040 – writes Wojciech Jakóbik, editor-in-chief of BiznesAlert.pl.

The assumptions of the Polish energy transformation are ambitious. Various low-emission technologies will effect in reduction of CO2 emissions from 863 to 394 kg CO2/MWh in 2040. This would mean fulfilling the requirement to be included in the new EU provisions of the winter package limiting the power market support for units issuing over 500 kg CO2/MWh. This is to be assured by Renewable Energy Sources without windmills on land, a new group of heat plants and nuclear power.

There will be no windmills, because in the conviction of the Ministry of Energy they require protection from conventional energy, and this will increase CO2 emissions, which we intend to reduce in consultation with the European Commission. For now, there will be no model for financing a nuclear power plant. In the model used for the forecast of the Polish Energy Policy until 2040, the assumption was made that 1 GW of the nuclear would cost PLN 25 billion.

– Until now, having no final decision whether we will do it or not, it was difficult to do so. This time is ahead of us and we will be carrying out various talks on this subject in order to reach the model that will be the best for us. We are striving for a capital model – said the Minister of Energy Krzysztof Tchórzewski in answer to the question BiznesAlert.pl.

– Today we are opening the way. We will see in what shape the final document will be. The document after social consultations, taking into account the votes of all interested parties, will be a compromise in this matter. Then it will be submitted to the Council of Ministers. The government will only inform about the adoption by the Council of Ministers – he said at a press conference.

This means that it is not known who and when will pay for the nuclear power plant, but it must make it to 2033, when the nuclear power plant is to be ready. All investments related to the transformation of the Polish energy sector will cost PLN 400 billion.

Poland declared that it would present an energy strategy at the COP24 climate summit in Katowice. It will fulfill this declaration partially, because it will show the project at the summit. It will have to defend itself at the government meeting. Meanwhile, the European Commission, which expects Poland to submit a plan for the decarbonisation of the economy by the end of the year as part of the National Plan for Energy and Climate, will have to wait for this decision. It is not known whether we will be able to implement our plan on time, but the minister of energy reassured that PEP 2040 is only a forecast that will be regularly reviewed, for example every two years.